All the rumors can now end regarding the USMNT Camp Cupcake friendlies for January as US Soccer officially announced both games. The US will take on Venezuela on January 21 at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona before heading down to Panama City to play Panama on January 25.

It seems like I am making changes to our MLS players training in Europe list each day and we have two new changes for today. It was first being reported that goalkeeper Sean Johnson would be heading to Manchester United to train, but things did not work out so now he is headed to Everton.

And fresh off his training stint at Stuttgart, Juan Agudelo is now headed to England to train with Liverpool. As always, if you spot a link about someone else headed over to Europe, please let us know.

Charlie Davies’ loan deal with DC United has officially ended and they will not be pursuing a permanent transfer. Should be interesting to see whether he returns to FC Sochaux or if he ends up elsewhere. They could still re-negotiate a new deal, so the door is not completely shut with DC.

And finally, goalkeeper Joseph Bendik is looking to return to the US with his contract expiring after this season with Norwegian side Sogndal.

7 Responses to “Thursday linkage”

If I remember correctly there were a couple of guys tearing it up for Sochaux while Davies was on loan. Does anybody have any idea if those guys are doing as well this year or maybe even if they were transferred during the last window?

Davies played awful towards the end of the season. He had a hat tricked against Chivas which were all gimmes set up by Chris Pontius. Pontius was injured the same game and Davies was ineffective the rest of the season. Davies couldn’t get off the bench towards the final push for the playoffs. His touch all season was pretty bad but he still had the ability to score clean up goals. I hope he can use another year to find his form but I really don’t see him touching the field for Sochaux in his current form. Sochaux was asking for a $1 million fee transfer from DC United.

Knowing Ben Olson’s coaching style I don’t see Davies going back to DC. He would much rather have the 30 somethings that don’t need coaching (because it isn’t in DC) like Wolff or any other spare they can get their hands on.

Having said that, it is obvious he is not the same in the pace department and that is a problem. It sucks, but I think he is just going to be pedestrian for the rest of his career…I’m glad he isn’t dead though, obviously that would be worse.

I wouldn’t really say that. DC was a pretty young team that started three teenagers this year. Davies just wasn’t all that good by MLS standards. Even if Modibo Maiga gets sold (Newcastle is the rumor) he isn’t going to play at Sochaux.